Volume 16 No 1 Feb 1965.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

one leg along the trough of Jhe waveand the other leg at right angles to thewavlil and up wind . . . When on thetrough of the wave they fly close downto the water and on the lee side of thewaves . . . Having proceeded thus for30 to 100 yards, they then make, a quickright-angle tura up'wind . . . and thenshoot upwards and forwards to a heightof about 50 feet."Note that the upcunent is over thelee side of the wav'e, Where the advancingwave slope lifts up the stagnant airin the trough - stagnant because ,it isslowed up by contact with smaller waves.There is practically no upeurrent abovethe windward slope, because tbe biggestwaves move almost as fast as the wind.A. E. S.SAUCER OVER MICHIGANBy HAROLO DREWIimagine tbat most of us are inclinedto be rather sceptical on the subjectof Unidentified Flying Objects - untilwe sight one. Last summer, flying outof Big Beaver Airport in Michigan, Isighted such a one.I bad taken a winch launCh afterbaving landed for a perfectly innocentlunch and waS relaxing in a welHlefinedthermal. I was climbing steadily, glancingaround now and then, half expectinga fellow member to come in and sharemy thermal. My glance fell on thlilU.F.O. and remained rivetted to it forthe two or three seconds until it disappearedunder my win,g.I did quite a bit of quick thinkingduring the folIowin,g ISO degrees beforeit again came into view. Here was thetraditional saucer on edge with the lens'shaped cabin at the centre; true, it wasquite a way off, although at about myaltitude; true, I could not yet distinguishthe characteristic inclined windows; true,that I had seen nothing more than aprofile.When the U.F.O. came into sightagain, I could take a longer and moredispassionate look. Doubts began toassail me. The body of a bird like theHeron, seen in profile, might IQok as if itcould be lens-shaped. Its legs, trailingbehind the body, might look like oneside of the rim of the saucer. However,I have !fever seen a Heron in soaringflight, nor does the Heron fly with hisneck extended so that the neck could betaken for the other side of the saucerrim, seen on edge.The third time round left me with fewfurther doubts. I could distinguish the52blob formed by the head, I thought Isaw a slight wing movement and" thebird was more nearly head on, so foreshorteningthe \leek and legs.. I decidedto head for him the next time round.However, the dedsion :came too late forI did not see our friend again.With ,a sunny day on our hands inNew York during the fall, we drove outto tbe' New York Zoological Park in theBronx and sought out Mr. J. Be1l, theAssistant Curator of birdS. He listenedpatiently to my tale and suggested thatthe bird was a Crane, probably a SandHill Crane. These birds, /le told us,stick their necks out in flight, are notunknown in Michigan and are l'ePllted10 soar, at least in ridge lift. He directedIl\e to an open-air aviary where a 1?airformed part of the. ~ollection. The birdswere, of course, p1Dloned and so couldnot be seen in flight, but, bearing IDmind Mr. Bell's descr~ption of theirflight attitude, 'one of this 'species couldhave been my U.F.O.I also took this opportunity to talkwith Mr. Bell about the migratory habitsof the birds we can Chicken Hawks inMichigan. He thought that they would b~the Broad Winged Hawk, which hestated to be common in Michigan andelsewhere in the U.S.,A.In the fan of '62, I completed amodest goal flight from Big Beaver toMarion. Ohio County Airport. En route,I was working a highly perfumedthermal triggered off from the MiamiRiver refinery at Toledo. I, looked upfrom my instruments to find myselfsurrounded by perhaps four or fivehundred Hawks. We climbed together to